How can we deal with multiple billing problems?

[Spartikus]

I am not sure that EI is aware of this, but in the 2 weeks prior to Tulga signing over Horizons, somehow they managed to double and triple bill alot of people right before they discontinued the billing service. Now those people are being told by the billing company they must go back to Tulga to rectify the problem since that contract is no longer valid.

EI was not in control of the billing at that time so who do the players turn to to fix those multiple billing issues?

(This was quite a widespread problem right up to the last week of the game prior to EI taking control. Also, it appears anyone who started up a trial account was also billed immeadiately.)

Any insight on this would be trememndously helpful as currently players are having to go directly to their CC company and refute the charges. That doesnt do anyone any good.

On a side note, there still seems to be no way to manage your account information.. Is their an ETA on this? Not to be a whiner but seems seriously silly that you can neither edit or even review your current billing info.. kind of scary =)

Thanks in advance

[LaughingOtter]

The multiple billing was due to TG's billing provider waiting until the last moment to get into compliance with a Federal mandate. The changes PBT made to their system had to be integrated with the systems on the Tulga side, and there were some serious problems that reulted.

Part of fixing the issue once and for all involved some changes to the game client. Part of those changes went to Blight, but the remaining changes had not been rolled out when the TG team was fired by Baker. EI now needs to recruit a staff who can finish up those required changes, QC them, and roll them out.

Tulga no longer has access to any player account information, apparantly, as all that was turned over to EI. I'm certain that EI will hire a top-notch customer service team and start addressing those issues as soon as they can.

[Dravatar]

I would think that EI is most definately aware of the problem, Spartikus. They did attempt to implement another billing practice due to the problems that they saw.

LO's explanation of the cause and viable remedy gives some history of how it happened. I, too, think that EI will be addressing those concerns ASAP and to the satisfaction of the customer.

That said, I would remind you that a post in a game forum does not constitute a written dispute of a billing charge. It is incumbent upon you, the customer, to write, email, or call the company about any specific charges you wish to contest. Billing is an individual problem, do not depend on others to fix something on your bill.

[Deth]

Your best bet is to go to your bank tell them your were double billed. That the compony saling the service no longer has a contract with the billing service and that they have sold the service to some one else and that you want to reverse the charges off of your card/account.

[Spartikus]

The reason I ask is because EII did not buy Tulga Games and all of it's debts and responsabilities. They bought the rights to the HZ franchise. It was an IP sale. this means that players that were billed incorrectly prior to the sale need to work with Tulga to get their refund. Is there any way to do that? At this time there is no way to get hold of Tulga Games period and there are currently a lot of players and potential players (trial accounts) who have been wrongfully billed.

EII has a lot on their plate to try and get a working billing system but thats another matter. My big concern is how do we/I get my CC charged back from Tulga? PBT will NOT help at all and simply refer you to the vendor. (In this case, Tulga)

A person can refute the charges with their CC but this harms everyone. CC companies HATE doing it because its a buttload of work, it flags your account on their end as potentially problematic, it puts a negative credit blemish on the vendor (in this case PBT) who will inturn put in a report against Tulga. Kind of a silly process over something as simple as a $12 refund.

The timing of this fiasco couldnt have been worse, with Tulga simply walking away from the issue it's going to leave a lot of people steamed and probably holding the bag for their $12. (or in some cases $24 and $36 dollars). Coincidentally enough last time Tulga was in trouble they had similar billing issues (just after bankruptcy) and alot of people were overbilled. Happy coincidence for them I guess.

[Dravatar]

A negative credit blemish against Tulga is no biggie if they no longer exist. The problem is customers who have already payed, as you've pointed out.

All you can do is try. If you can't get satisfaction from TG, it doesn't hurt to write EI. They may have an idea of how to get in contact with TG or C Baker, even. The worst they can do is say is "no." Even if you don't get any money back, EI may do some nice PR thing and credit your subscription with extra time.

[AA0]

TG does exist still.

[Dravatar]

Any clue as to how to contact them in regards to billing issues?

[AA0]

I would assume most of the old tulgagames emails work still, or Ophelea would know..

[Spartikus]

Tulga laid off all but a handful of people AAO. Not sure what emails you are refering to as I am only familiar with the support/horizons emails and those are all now routed to EII.

If you know who we should be contacting I'd love it if you could share =)

Thanks